Hrithik Roshan as Ram & Amitabh Bachchan as Dashrath: The Mega Ramayana That Never Materialized

Hrithik Roshan as Ram & Amitabh Bachchan as Dashrath: This was in the planning stages before Om Raut brought Adipurush or Nitesh Tiwari brought Ramayana to life, on a big screen. Although Prabhas as Lord Rama in Adipurush did not go well with the audiences and underperformed at the box office, hopes are high with the adaptation of Ranbir Kapoor and Yash. Not many people know, however, that Ramayana was to be produced even before these movies on the big screen; with such actors as Hrithik Roshan and Amitabh Bachchan.

In 2008, director and actor Sanjay Khan conceptualised a Modern take on the Ramayana, estimated to have a budget of 50 crore. Having shot to fame by directing such successful mythological and historical television shows as Jai Hanuman, Jai Mahabharat, The Sword of Tipu Sultan and The Great Maratha, Sanjay Khan was only too keen to get the epic on to the silver screen.

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It was reported in 2008 in the Mumbai Mirror that the film was called The Legend of Rama, and was to be co-written, by Sanjay Khan and a UK-based author, Farrukh Dhondy. The cast that he had proposed consisted of his son in-law Hrithik Roshan playing Lord Rama, his son Zayed Khan playing Lakshman and Amitabh Bachchan playing king Dashrath.

Zayed Khan confirmed the movie in a 2008 interview with Subhash K Jha in Mumbai Mirror, saying, “Yes, my father is indeed making the Ramayan. It’s called The Legend of Rama. He has been planning this film for the last three years and looking for a perfect actor to play Ram. And who but Hrithik could be the perfect choice for the role?”

Co-writer Farrukh Dhondy added, “It’s Ramayan in modern format, and the script is ready. This means it will be the Ramayan in The Lord Of The Rings genre. The screenplay has the motion, motivation and movement of a Shakespearean play. When you do a Mahabharat, Ramayan or any other scripture, the danger is it just becomes—‘the Gods did this, the Gods did that,’ because the Gods can do anything they like. That’s why you are taught in writing school never to include Gods in your creativity. I’m trying to rationalise the ways of the Gods. Hrithik is the perfect Ram, and Zayed the perfect Laxman.”

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This vision and planning never led to production of the project as eventually they shelved the project.

Recently, the creators gave people a radiant small preview of Ramayana, which stars Ranbir Kapoor as Lord Rama and Yash as Ravana. The character designs were only part of the features that captured the attention of the audience but also the quality of VFX and the background score composed by AR Rahman and Hans Zimmer which made it very strong. The teaser has been compared to Adipurush with a lot of people terming it much better.

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Nitesh Tiwari's Ramayana features Sai Pallavi as Sita, Sunny Deol as Lord Hanuman, and Ravie Dubey as Lakshman. The film is scheduled to be released in two parts, one on Diwali 2026 and the other on Diwali 2027.

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